With a pine tree fastened at one end, a US flag providing balance on the other, and a huge wafting in the wind in the middle, the beam held a load of signatures — about 250 well wishes rendered in pink, red, blue and green Sharpies by the company’s dancers, staff, supporters, construction officials and hard-hat types.

Furr couldn’t resist summing up the morning’s general sentiment with a pun. “We’re beaming with joy,” he said, noting the building’s uniqueness and sense of purpose. “It’s designed from the inside out, and totally appropriate to the people who use it.”

GARY FOUNTAIN PHOTOS: FOR THE CHRONICLE

Mireille Hassenboehler, left, and Melza Barr.

The crowd applauded as a crane lifted the beam into position. Sugar Plum fairy and Prix de Lausanne finalist Liao Xiang, who waved a magic wand, offered an assist. (Maybe that’s why the rain held off.)

Richard McGee, left, and C.C. Conner.

Much of the crowd also toured the ground floor of the Center, where inset concrete marked the boundaries of the 200-seat black box theater to be known as the Margaret Alkek Dance Lab — a facility that will fill a need in the community as well as for the company.

Then it was down to the underground parking area for a buffet lunch from Treebeard’s. Hard to say which will be more of an issue there — flooding (although an engineer next to me assured me there’s a French drain system outside to alleviate that) or jostling for the parking spaces by everyone who will use the building.

On track to be complete by May 2011, the 115,000-square foot Center for Dance will double Houston Ballet’s current space, giving it 9 rehearsal studios (they have 6 now) and a dorm for 20 students who now live in several townhomes.

The signing took place on a grassy knoll just west of the construction site and behind the Wortham Theater Center. Eventually, a crosswalk funded by the Houston Redevelopment Authority will connect the two buildings.

Jay Jones, left, and Bob Blakely.

Among the VIPs in the crowd: Jesse H. Jones II and John C. Bass, co-chairs of the ongoing capital campaign; Lynn Wyatt, Phoebe Tudor, Ermanno Florio.